Greenwich bolts past Warde in boys lacrosse

Paul Devlin

Updated 11:18 pm, Wednesday, May 8, 2013

With a showdown against Darien on Friday, Greenwich High School boys lacrosse coach Scott Bulkey tried to make sure his team focused on the one in front of them on Wednesday afternoon. The final score of 9-2 might have indicated to some the Cardinals didn't take Fairfield Warde lightly, but Bulkley didn't seem that pleased with the overall effort.

"I don't think we executed the way we should've," Bulkley said. "Our shooting was not where it needed to be. I think they looked past Warde and they shouldn't be doing that."

The Cardinals sure came out like they had tunnel-vision against Warde.

Twenty-five seconds into the game, Kyle Foote, who was circling behind the net, spotted Luke Finneran wide open near the crease, and fed him with a perfect pass. Finneran did the rest to give Greenwich a 1-0 lead.

"It was a great play right off transition," Finneran said. "It was a nice feed by Kyle. I made a cut and scored it."

Just under a minute later, Foote put a beautiful spin move on a Fairfield Warde defender near the left side of the goalie's crease. He then fired one past goalie Jason Nerreau to stake the Cardinals to a 2-0 lead.

"I pushed to the island and rolled back. The defenseman's stick wasn't on my shoulder," Foote said. "So, I just dipped-and-dunked the goalie."

Warde got on the board with 5:34 to go in the first quarter when Kevin Robinson ripped one past Cardinals goalie William Waesche to make it a 2-1 game after the first quarter.

Greenwich reclaimed a two-goal advantage at the 9:40 mark of the second quarter. Ryan Flippin took a nice centering pass from Will Gibian and found the back of the net to make it 3-1 Cardinals.

With 2:43 to go in the half, Gibian was set up perfectly by Kelly Jay in front of the net, beating Nerreau down low to give Greenwich a 4-1 halftime lead. The Cardinals dominated the third period to blow the game open. Once again, Foote set up Finneran, this time with a long pass as he sprinted down field. Finneran had the goalie at his mercy from close range and made a nice move, sliding one home to give Greenwich a 5-1 advantage At the 6:15 mark, Alec Oropall circled in from the back of the net and rifled one home to help the Cardinals open up a 6-1 lead after three periods.

With 10:48 to play in the game, John Tooher gave Greenwich a 7-1 lead, then Foote added his second goal of the game, blistering one past Nerreau from about 15-yards outside the circle. Reed Brady added a goal to make it 9-1 Greenwich. Fairfield-Warde scored with 1.5 seconds left to close out the scoring and make it a 9-2 final.

"We were happy with it," Foote said. "We definitely had Darien in the back of our heads. That game is going to huge, but we were happy with our performance against Warde. I don't think we looked past them."